Wednesday, November 30, 2005

"Got the wrong script from the teleprompter. As you know this is really the Humphley/Brinley report. No no. The Bullwinkle Show. And I am your moose-ster of ceremonies for the next half-hour: Bullwinkle his-self. As if you couldn't tell. I mean what other show has a host who sings, dances, recites poetry and has antlers? Well, on this network anyway..." - Bullwinkle (The Bullwinkle Show)

I haven't gotten around to updating this blog in the past few days. Why? Because it is the last week of classes, I have 2 projects due on Friday, and I am still at the computer lab :-P Yes, I am still at school and I got here in the morning. (By the way, I had left at 2 AM on Tuesday morning). This is nothing new and has been going on for ...ugh...weeks now.

Anyway, during various 5-minute-breaks-to-keep-my-sanity (which I have to say are not really keeping me all that sane) I found some articles you might find interesting. Of course, I am kind of in that so tired you are a little slap happy mode at the moment. Anyway, here are the links:

Saturday, November 26, 2005

"Silver white winters that melt into springs, these are a few of my favorite things" - Maria (The Sound of Music)

I got the 2-Disc special edition of The Sound of Music. I have been watching the special features. Anyway, all of the songs are now stuck in my head now. Like many of the Rodgers and Hammerstein creations, the songs are simply and easy to remember (hense why the lyrics get stuck in your head). There has been a lot of work to restore the movie (the faces don't seem so blurry). Anyway, if you have never scene it - you should. Even if you don't like musicals you should see it. Yes, there is singing, but there is a complex story line mixed in.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Wow!The New York Times article about them. I really like the way the article started the part about Dell, Apple, and Microsoft. (I also wanted to note that I didn't actually make fun of Microsoft here, I just pointed you to an article. I am the innocent one. I was just trying to ...umm... encourage education, broadening of horizons... that sounds pretty good doesn't it?)

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

"Wait, we can not break bread with you. You have taken the land which is rightfully ours. Years from now my people will be forced to live in mobile homes on reservations. Your people will wear cardigans, and drink highballs. We will sell our bracelets by the road sides, and you will play golf, and eat hot h'ors d'ourves. My people will have pain and degradation. Your people will have stick shifts. The gods of my tribe have spoken. They said do not trust the pilgrims, especially Sarah Miller. And for all of these reasons I have decided to scalp you and burn your village to the ground." - Wednesday (Addams Family Values)

It is snowing! Again! In Novemeber? What is this?!?

The new Enya CD (Amarantine) came out yesterday! Been listening to it and I highly recommend it. It is great background music. I have a feeling it is going to be one of those CDs that I listen to over and over. But you don't have to take my word for how good the CD is...

Latest from Google: Google Book Search. I really have tried it and found some useful info this way. (Of course, it wasn't that important of information).

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Have you ever actually stopped and really read the headlines for news articles? I know that the purpose is to grab your attention, but have you ever really thiought about the titles? I found when I really thought about them they seemed funny and a little off the wall. The titles do the job, they tell you what the article is about and as long as you don't think about them too much I find that you really don't notice. Maybe because we are so use to seeing this kinds of titles and because of their purpose it really isn't something you notice. Of course, I could be completely wrong about the whole title thing and you don't see the humor in them at all...

Maybe I find the following news article titles to be fun becuase it is after 2 in the morning and frankly I haven't had a lot of sleep recently. So anyway, I figured that I would share a few of these titles with you. For (I hope) your viewing pleasure:

Saturday, November 19, 2005

...just group projects. Actually, I am kidding. I am just taking a short break from by JSP/servlet project. In reality I should be working on a different project for a different class, but clearly I'm not since I am typing this blog.

The title to this blog comes from my reading of this article and the fact that during the last lecture I gave about 20+ people (out of 58) had laptops and clearly none of them were paying the least bit of attention. Which of course might explain their confussion on their current assignment...

I am sure that a couple of the students were actually following along with the notes - the ones sitting in the front couple rows. However, all the people in the back I know were playing online games. I really do know since the grad student I co-teach with sat in the back of the room last lecture and was therefore able to confirmed my suspicion. Maybe if I incorporated gaming into my class more people would pay attention. Hmm... that gives me an idea for next lecture.

The inch of snow that the west side of Michigan had last Wednesday/Thursday night has melted (it is 53 degrees today). Of course, thenext couple days is suppose to be in the mid 40s and drop to 35 on Tuesday. Then we begin the up-and-down weather typical of Michigan. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Yikes. Two weeks of class left and then I can catch up on important stuff like sleep and write the final exam for my class. Several of the students were asking me about the final on Thursday. It was funny when one of them finally stated "you haven't written it yet have you?"

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Ben: You don't need someone crazy, if you're one step short of crazy, what do you get?Riley: Obsessed?Ben: Passionate.(From the movie National Treasure)

Well, just about the snow. We didn't get a 1/2 inch. We got a whole inch and it is still snowing! The other side of the state doesn't have much snow. They are getting flurries (whenever I hear that word I think ice cream but that is here nor there) but not snow. The snow is really quite pretty. However, I still can't believe that there is snow in November before Thanksgiving! Maybe it is snowing lots of other places right now and I just don't know about it because I am busy obsessing over the fact that it is snowing on the west side of the Michigan in November. Anyway, moving on from the snow issue...

It has continued to snow on the West side of Michigan. We now have like 1/2 an inch (or maybe a little bit more) of snow! It is actually kind of hard to imagine.

This of course got me thinking. Thanksgiving is coming up. This also means that the day after Thanksgiving is coming up. We all know what is special about the day after Thanksgiving - right? It is the day of shopping! Yeppers. I always go shopping the day after Thanksgiving. So that got me thinking...how can I turn this into a blog. (OK, really I didn't have any other topic in mind so I decided that I could claim this next part relates because really who was going to tell me it didn't?)

Lets move on. Where was I? Oh right, shopping. So I decided in this blog to point out some really wacky stuff that they sell via the Internet. So here it goes:

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

It is snowing outside! I can't believe it. Well, I saw in the weather report that it was going to snow I was shocked. It was like 60 over the weekend. Now that I see the snow, I am still surprised. It has been snowing on and off all day. Not tons of snow, just little spits of snow. It is like 30 out and it is going to get colder when the sun goes down.

Now I have to get back to JSP, servlets, and all that stuff. Got project to do for this software engineering class. We are building part of a video rental store. I say part of because we are concentrating on the UML diagrams (and corresponding documents) to sketch out the project. We are using IBM's websphere to do the project. Websphere is a very interesting product. It works well. However, it is one of those pieces of software that you start up, go get a cup of coffee (or a bottle of pop), come back, check your email, and then it is ready. Of course, this probably is majorly influenced by the fact that we are on the university computers in a large computer lab. Shoot, it takes a long time get get firefox to start up!

Where was I? Oh right, snowing, JSP/servlets, and a bunch of student programs that I need to look at...

I have finally finished debugging a bunch of students assignments. The assignment is due tomorrow at midnight. I had 4 hours of office hours today in which I stayed pretty busy which was nice. Anyway, I haven't had a lot of time to pull together much of a blog. Sorry about that. It is the end of the semester - I have a feeling that this kind of blog is going to become a regular thing (until the semester is over anyway). On a complete side note: it is getting colder, windy, and rumors of snow. Yikes.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Microsoft is finally moving to the 21st century software development methodology!. Yes, I like Extreme Programming and Agile software methodologies. I think they are better than the old way of doing stuff. Are the agile software development methodologies perfect? Nope. But here is the thing: the traditional methods have been shown repeatively to not work, so why not try something else? What have you possibly got to lose? It doesn't make sense to use the same broken method. Agile might not be perfect, but at least people are thinking and trying new things. That is the excitment associated with agile methodologies - trying new ways and approaches.

Alright, I think I have ranted enough for one day. Lets move on shall we?"IBM 3D TV"

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

"Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog." - Doug Larson

Maybe I should change the title to "It's Gonna Be a Long Week". It is November and there aren't that many weeks left in the term. I try not to think about it actually. Because then I would have to acknowledge all the work I still have to jam into the next weeks. I also am trying to avoid thinking about final exams, because I really don't like taking exams. I like studying for exams, I am a huge fan of studing for exams. It's the taking part I don't really like. Speaking of exams - I have one on Thursday (in computer networks).

I finally figured out what class I want to take in the Spring. It is going to one wild semester. I am going to take a class in computer architecture and a class on analysis of algorithms. Hmmm...I am going to need to hunt down my books on the topic over break so I can review some stuff. I think it is going to be 2 fun classes. They are going to be in the morning this time, which is nice because them I will actually get up. Wait here is a funny thought, I think the algorithm's class I am taking this time is being run at the same time is the class I took at a different university. Wacky.

OK, so enough about me. Lets move on to what you really came for - links.

Child's Play has started up again this year. If you are a fan of Penny Arcade then I am sure you have heard about it.

"History's Worst Software Bugs". I took a class about reliable computing when I first started grad school and we discussed several of the cases here. I think we also covered a little of it during a class I took about ethics for software engineers. Anyway, good article.

Saturday, November 5, 2005

It's the weekend again. Like most weekends I have my large quanitiy of things I need to do - homework, lecture prep, and project stuff. This weekend I also have to study for a test in computer networks. It is over the TCP/UDP layer and a little on the IP protocol. Fun stuff.

The lecture I am preping for is arrays. Arrays are a lot of fun to teach and a very important part of programming. However, I am really looking forward to going over sorting, but that is for the following week. I am trying to narrow down what example I want to use in-class. I am also trying to figure out some good practice problems to have the class do. I am hoping that this will lead them to a better understanding of arrays. Of course, as I told someone else - it can't hurt. It's not like they are going to learn less from my example.

Like the rest of the world I purchased and watched the DVD (which was released Tuesday but I didn't have a chance to watch it until Friday night) for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Overall, its a good movie. Haven't watch much of the special features - just a few deleted scenes. My favorite part of the movie? The fact there is lots of Yoda. Lots of Yoda with a light saber...

Wednesday, November 2, 2005

I don't have much time to write a blog tonight. So I am going to just going to give you a link to "Change Mozilla's User Agent" article. It was discussed during one of my classes this evening. I thought it was interesting idea anyway.

Who Am I?

Graduate student in computer science who does a little teaching to get "free" tuition. Happy to recently find out that there are at least 3 people who read this blog. One day hopes to move to a warmer climate were she can wear sandals all year round.